Writings on Politics, Economics and History

The Forgotten Falk Corporation

Like many great companies, today the Falk Corporation is forgotten. At its height, it perfected the silicon chips of the industrial era. Falk designed and manufactured fat gears and thin gears, cheap gears and expensive gears, gears that could open the Panama Canal, and gears that fit on a small desk. It made gears for engines, dams, trains, conveyor belts, subway systems—any industry that needed to transfer power probably used Falk Gears.

I began researching the Falk Corporation because I wanted to learn more about the innovation network of Silicon Valley. It may seem odd to research a defunct Milwaukee-based gear manufacturer for this, but it makes sense when you ponder the history. By every conceivable measure Silicon Valley is the epic center of modern innovation. The bulk of the software and algorithms that power the world are designed inside the 20 mile region. Its evolution is also fairly straightforward: government subsidies, elite education system, solid business support and infrastructure, etc. In the early 1900s, as crazy as it sounds, that innovation epic center may have been Milwaukee. The industry was industrial metal fabrication, and in a span of about twenty years 10-15 companies that would dominate the mid 1900s sprouted within few miles. Six came from a 3-4 block radius in what is now known as Walker’s Point: Pawling & Harnischfeger (cranes), Kearney & Trecker (milling), A.O. Smith (car frames), Allis Chambers (everything), Nordberg and Chain Belt (mining equipment).

That’s what set me down the Falk Corporation’s path. I was trying to discover why it came to be, and what it means for today’s world–specifically building an innovation based economy. Here’s a super annotated version of my notes on the early history of the Falk Corporation. They’re primarily derived from the Milwaukee Public Library’s vast resources and the work of Milwaukee historian John Gurda.

Founder:

Herman Falk, was born into a life of immense privilege and opportunity. His father, a cooper’s son, started Falk Brewery. At its peak, it out produced 20th century giants Schlitz and Miller—combined. The brewery had production capacity of around 200,000 barrels. To put that in perspective, today the largest brewery in Chicago maxes out at 250,000. In 1892 the largest brewing company in the world was created when the family sold itself to Pabst for over $500,000 in stock.

Besides making him rich, Herman Falk used the brewery’s old production facilities as his early machine shop. His first major customer was Pabst—the company that made his family wealthy.

Received his first patent when he was just 20 for “new and useful Improvements in Wagon-Breaks.”

Early Company History:

Falk first success was a mobile foundry that could repair broken street car track joints. By 1900 almost 1/3 of all street rail tracks in America had Falk castings.

The process caught on. By 1900 the industry was essentially commoditized.

In 1909 he bought the exclusive American rights to Caspar Wust-Kuntz’s herringbone gear design. By 1915 engineers refined the technology to create 16 feet wide gears that could turn 50 feet and return to 1/10,000 inch of the original starting point.

The company probably would have died without government contracts. Prior to WW1 the Federal Government allocated $500 million for naval expansion. This meant 32 orders for gear drives to power Bethlehem Shipbuilding’s destroyers.

After WW1 the company focused on selling lots of standardized orders, rather than large custom designs.

Early Eastern and Southern European immigration bans boosted sales as a low labor supply generated interest in automation.

This led to the creation of regulators to control industrial motors and coupling units to control multiple machines at once.

Spearheaded early co-op programs with local schools.

Incredibly anti-union, caught falsifying Navy hourly billings.

That’s the gist of the Falk Corporation’s early history. If you have any additional thoughts or recommendations I’d love to hear them!

Hi!
My name is Susan Falk Thompson and I have just come across your article about the Forgotten Falk Corp.

My father, Harold Frank Falk, was the last of the Falk family to serve as President and oversaw the sale of the company.

As a child I knew “Uncle Herman” Falk and still have a picture of his yacht, the Seaforth, hanging in my office. Harold Sands Falk, my grandfather, served as President of the company when Herman Falk retired.

I am curious about the last line in your article stating that the company was
caught falsifying Navy hourly billings.”

This came as a real surprise to me as I know that the company received a number of awards from the Navy and that the officers were on a friendly basis with a number of admirals.

Thanks for commenting. It’s always good to hear that people actually read an article, rather than it floating into the ether.

The source on falsifying Navy hours was the following book:

The Making of “A Good Name in Industry”: A History of the Falk Corporation, 1892-1992 by John Gurda.

It’s fairly expensive on Amazon, but if you’re local to Milwaukee, the Central Library has a copy of it in its local history room.

I don’t have the exact page numbers for the story in my notes, but here’s a bit more detail from what I wrote down.

The 1935 Wagner Act ushered in mass unionization within heavy industry. Management at Allis Chambers, Bucryus, and A.O. Smith recognized their employees right to collectively bargain. Falk management didn’t. They retaliated against workers, specifically firing one of the lead organizers–a guy named Anton Kinch. Kinch went to authorities claiming that Falk defrauded the Navy by charging time spent on commercial jobs to the U.S. Navy jobs. The Navy investigated and more or less verified Kinch’s claims. I don’t believe anything major happened out of it.

Enjoyed the article. Mr. Falk and the Seaforth are mentioned in Peninsula State Park’s Camp Meenahga archives. Let me know if you’re interested in seeing it. I work as the naturalist at Peninsula State Park and am working on a book related to Camp Meenahga.

We are involved in a project that includes deep diver Max Gene Nohl who had set the world’s deepest dive in Lake Michigan. In 1935 he built a small diving bell called Hell Below. He had Falk Corporation fabricate it. He later built a large dive bell and shipped it to Silver Springs, Florida. We think Falk might have fabricated it. We are looking for any information about Nohl and these two diving bells.

Dear Mr. Gardner
I stumbled across your article “The Forgotten Falk and really enjoyed it. I spent 35 years with Falk and retired in 1992 as one of two regional sales managers. In my first two years of training there was a young man on the program named Nelson Hyde. He was married to Cindy Falk. Harold’s daughter. Suzan, Cindy’s sister, wrote you on the article. Wondered if you know where she lives or what her number is? I’d love to get ahold of her to discuss this history.
A Falk Loyalist
Roy Johnson

We worked as a sales engineer at Falk from 1957 to 1992. When I started, Harold,Dick, and Louie owned and ran the company. In the early years we worked with Nelson Hyde , who was married to one of Harold’s daughters. She must have been the sister of Susan Thompson Falk who replied to your article. Do you know where she is located? Rex has brought Falk to it’s knees. We enjoyed your article.

Spent 35 years at Falk and retired as one of 2 Regional Sales Managers. Dick Falk first offered me a job when he wanted me to pitch for the baseball team. We were on the training program with Nelson Hyde, who was married to Susan Falk’s sister (who responded to your article) . Nelson died in a boating accident and we often wondered how his family was.